-CookieMonster666-

Devoted Member
Nov 20, 2018
11,190
16,281

jasont123

Member
Aug 14, 2020
114
1,302


In the last three posts, I often caught myself thinking "damn - I'm really nailing this Patreon thing! I'm already posting again even though my last post was last week!", and every time, I'm met with the harsh truth. My last post was last month. Time is slipping through my fingers like boiling noodles.

I digress.

The mildly annoying...

Hey, folks. I hope you're all good, at least better than I am, 'cause - I haven't told you this - but I've actually been sick twice in the past three months. The last time, which I've only healed recently was the fiercest one. It got me coughing for two whole weeks, which might not seem like a big deal, but I'm really not used to being sick (at all). I think it's related to the new place since I'm very allergic to house dust and pretty much anything with a perceptible smell that's not edible. I spent a lot of my sick time playing Kenshi (btw, great game, go play) and fiddling with my stress-relief projects (might be posting some animations soon).

Needless to say...I haven't touched MW all that much. I'm really sorry.

Seeing as it's been one year since I've updated MW, it really got me thinking...and reading...and air-punching...

Something that's taken as the canon among players and developers is that indie games getting completed are not the rule, but the exception.
I refuse that truth. It's pretty well-established that in order to release something, you must navigate in-between the original concept and ambition of your idea and what you can actually make. But the way I see it, if I cannot bear the reality of not releasing anything new for a year, how am I supposed to say no the moment some publisher offers to take my soul for money? I've told you guys before that I intend to follow a game dev career, and MW won't be my last game. I need to be able to do wonders out of scraps if I'm gonna be anything like the guy I wanna be in a few years, and that means rejecting the very pleasing idea of releasing the game half-baked and getting some easy money. I mean, how would anyone even know? You don't have the original material to compare it to, you won't know how much I actually cut so I can push an update. You can't see inside of my head.

I understand that if I had done all the previous chapters exactly how I wanted to make them we would still be talking about Chapter 0...but that doesn't make me regret it less, because I can still see inside of my head. I'll see what it is knowing what it could've been...and that stings, man.

Chapter 4 is coming out exactly how I want it to be, regardless of how sick, poor, or stressed out I get.

Might sound too extreme and I know a lot of people don't care about this as much as I do...but I do. My games might never be among the best or even the decent ones, but I still love doing it so much.

Oh, I'm rambling again. I almost forgot to tell you about...

...the highly satisfactory.
I'm rich.

Well, not really, but...compared to where I was a week and a half ago, yeah.

Not getting too much into it, but I've recently managed to get my hands on a nice sum of cash™ - meaning - I'll no longer be worrying about money for a while, which puts me in a place where I can work more on MW and worry less about everything else.

With some of the money, I decided to acquire this bad boy right here for work purposes:


-Intel Core i5 10300h
-8 gb ram
-256 ssd
-NVidia Geforce 1650 4gb

8 gigs of ram are pretty much nothing and its storage doesn't have enough space for a fart in it, but it's good enough.

I'll be able to divide the work load between computers quite nicely, which is great, considering it wasn't cheap. The CPU also has a faster clock speed than my desktop. Let that sink in.
This is where it's sitting right now:

Disregard the complete mess...

This is where I hide from the su- *ahem* work.

I spent the last 48 hours running logistics between the two computers and listening to my favorite podcasts. The little guy has access to my assets and scene files and is ready to kick gum and chew ass. No longer will I fear getting shut out of my computer every time I'm doing rendering work. Now I can render stuff on my laptop while working from my desktop and vice versa. I'm really enjoying the upgrade.

Another win for the one-man studio.

Here hoping to have you guys witnessing the next ones.

Still at it - still winning.
 

m0us3r

Member
Nov 28, 2020
493
1,435
sick time playing Kenshi

(...)

Chapter 4 is coming out exactly how I want it to be, regardless of how sick, poor, or stressed out I get.

Might sound too extreme and I know a lot of people don't care about this as much as I do...but I do. My games might never be among the best or even the decent ones, but I still love doing it so much.

(...)

Still at it - still winning.
BTW, Kenshi developer worked solo for many years, making his living as security guard... That's an example of persistence for so many devs.

Good luck in your passions, Capella.
 

jasont123

Member
Aug 14, 2020
114
1,302
Per SMGs discord server:

Riccardo Moon — 08/26/2022
Just finished a playthrough. Any word on a update since the one above?

[DEV] SMG — Yesterday at 5:20 PM
To put you (or any newcomer) up to speed, there hasn't been an update in a whole year, which is a milestone I'd rather not have accomplished, but here we are. A series of factors contributed to that. To name a few, Iray (the render technology I use for the images) changed a lot of its functionality, rendering lots of hours of my work completely useless. Also, the next chapter is gargantuan compared to the previous one. People close to me got some issues I was helping solve, I got some issues I had to solve (like getting violently sick twice) and some other stuff. But I got a new laptop to help me with rendering and I'm working on the game every single day, even if just a little, so it shouldn't be much longer, now - certainly not another year (please god no).
 

nsfwdemanded

Member
Nov 22, 2020
189
330
After a year or more, i'm convinced this dev is full of shit. Hey, no bad feelings or anything personal, this was a really promising game but we (at least i) gotta accept this is going nowhere. Maybe you have a hard life, maybe you can't even sit on a pc without somebody bugging you, i don't know. Its been a good ride, time to unwatch and press that ignore thread button.
 

Sweetmate

Newbie
Mar 20, 2019
38
129
How did it go from in June all renders and writing being done and expecting a week and half till release, to "certainly not another year" at the end of August? wtf man
 

stahalle

Engaged Member
Jul 11, 2018
2,072
3,611
How did it go from in June all renders and writing being done and expecting a week and half till release, to "certainly not another year" at the end of August? wtf man
health and technical complications. you can read in detail about what happend 1 site back.
 

Alikadam443

Newbie
Nov 30, 2021
33
31
After a year or more, i'm convinced this dev is full of shit. Hey, no bad feelings or anything personal, this was a really promising game but we (at least i) gotta accept this is going nowhere. Maybe you have a hard life, maybe you can't even sit on a pc without somebody bugging you, i don't know. Its been a good ride, time to unwatch and press that ignore thread button.
dont be rude man
 

Smarmint

Well-Known Member
Mar 23, 2019
1,250
4,894
I don't know, guys. I've seen lots of developers drag things out forever and BS their fans and subscribers to keep the money flowing, while slow walking their games, but I don't think Smoke Mob is in that category, at all.

Mad World is quite ambitions for a first time developer. The story and dialog are very good, and there is quite a lot of content.

Things happen. It is not like Smoke Mob is making $5,000+ a month and this is his full time job. Those hugely succesful devs should get some scrutiny since basically developing the game is their primary or secondary job, and should be able to release something reasonable every 2-3 months, in my opinion.

However, small-time developers with limited resources like Smoke Mob are in a different category. I think he has done a great job so far, with a truly unique game, that is consistently high quality, and as a fan I can't wait to see what happens next after each update. I think Smoke Mob is being straight with his fans in that he is having issues moving forward for various personal and technical reasons, and we should all give him a break and encourage him to continue. I think he has been honest with what is going on. It is basically a hobby for him, that gives him a little extra income, and hopefully with more releases it will get more and more support.

I for one hopes he continues to work on it as a pace that works for him, so eventually we can see the story continue. I love it so far.
 
4.50 star(s) 132 Votes